So, it took longer than expected to get it started but we've reached the end of Knockout Tournament 10. Thanks to everyone that participated, we know the game selection is not always to everyone's liking, but I think things went well outside of a few issues along the way.

Of course, as mentioned in that other thread, it didn't take long before I began to think "Maybe a 32-man single-elimination bracket isn't the best of ideas". I knew there would be some upsets but I was really surprised by certain players who ended up getting eliminated. That's not to take anything away from Paolo Colman's victory - he had impressive scores in nearly every round and deserved the win (although interestingly enough, nii-san's scores in the bronze medal match for the finals were higher than Paolo's...). But a 32-man bracket is just... TOO random I think. I definitely feel that whoever does the next Knockout tournament, it would probably be wiser to have more rounds in which highest scores move on, instead of 1-on-1 matches. I'm starting to think that maybe the earliest the 1-on-1 matches should show up would be top 8, but even that might be pushng it. Then again, I know people like the exciting nature of head-to-head matches. It's a tough decision, but ultimately that lies in the hands of the future coordinators. To anyone who got eliminated despite putting up one of the highest scores for the round on their respective game - I'm sorry, but these things happen

Also, to answer a couple thoughts people might have had... "Why wasn't there a sports game? Why wasn't there a traditional shoot-em-up?"

Finding a sports game is tricky, especially when it comes to one-credit competition as an arcade game. It seems like in a lot of sports games (soccer games in particular), it comes down to figuring out one pattern that the CPU won't counter and then running it over and over. I know I'm over-generalizing things, and that there are a lot of games that DON'T fit this criteria. In lieu of a "regular" sports game, I thought a Track 'n Field-style game would be good, but we didn't find one we all agreed on there either. So we ended up using a fighting game (SFIII 3rd Strike) as a backup plan. Hopefully the next group of coordinators fares better in finding a sports game.

We didn't use a regular shmup because Cosmo Gang seemed like a good, basic introductory game for the tournament (and I think it worked well in that regard), and Grobda was different enough that we thought it had some potential as a tournament game with its depth in score chaining. Unfortunately we didn't expect the best basic strategy to be suiciding on stage 12 for a big chain That was unfortunate, but it's the risk you run in using an "underexplored" game.

I'm still pissed about the whole Pengafin thing. Whoever you are, thanks for wasting your time in making these slowed-down inps, and wasting our time in watching the inps trying to figure out what exactly the deal was with them, when we had so many other recordings to be watching and confirming too (the qualifying rounds are busy...). It was no accident, you knew EXACTLY what you were doing. Ugh.

Anyway, I'm not sure when MARP elections are taking place but I do not plan on being a coordinator for the next tournament. Definitely better to have some new blood take a crack at it.

Congratulations Colman Paolo, weel deserved! A-la LAWLSHOOTERGAMES, 1st competition and top position reached.
Congratulations RAX, you played very well. Well done! Also nii-san and Goldtimes, and everyone. It was excellent to play with you all!

And special thanks to BBH, mahlemiut and MJS. Very good competition! I really know how hard is to do it! See you next Knockout!
And to everyone: let's never forget that this competition, that completed TEN editions... 10 editions... is only result of all we, hobbyists. Everyone that loves electronic games, mainly Arcade games of that old era! It's not easy to come together so many people, of many countries, with some different tastes and preferences, and put all in one FREE competition, just for fun! No one here is professional, and the free time is an issue to everyone, that have many other priorities instead of videogames, but it's similar to everyone! I'll support Knockout competition all long as I can... See you my friends!

Congratulations to colman paolo for 1st place!!!
And thanks to all players for participating, I enjoyed watching everyone playing.

Since BBH wrote his thoughts on the tournament, I'll do the same.

First of all I want to publically say thanks BBH and mahlemiut, it was fun running K10 with you guys.
Special thanks (and congratulations) to you Matt, for doing all the difficult job. It's not the first time we run a knockout tournament together. I bet he probably hates me by now, lol.

We took the game selection process quite seriously. We had to agree on games with a good variety of genres, skills required for each, years, manufacturers, control schemes, etc. We wanted to test every game to discard those with bugs or playback issues (unfortunately many games were discarded because of this) and this was very difficult and time consuming. Some games ended up having issues we didn't catch, I am sorry for that. We also tried to focus on games with good scoring systems (in other words, friendly for competition) and games with good potential for players with different skill levels. It was also important for us to make sure every game worked well, but our free time was limited (specially mine, and on top of that I suffered an HD crash during the tournament) so some things didn't turn out as we expected.

I think we could have done a better job on many aspects, but please understand we do this on our free time and for the love of the games. Also, please understand it is impossible to pick games which meet everyone's expectations. I apologize if you ended up "suffering" some of the games.

As BBH already pointed out, we learned a few things along the way, so you can expect another (hopefully better) tournament from us in the future. I share feelings with BBH here, definitely not next year, though. Me at least, wants to play the next tournament!

Again, I hope you enjoyed playing K10 and thanks everyone for participating!!!

BBH wrote:
Anyway, I'm not sure when MARP elections are taking place but I do not plan on being a coordinator for the next tournament. Definitely better to have some new blood take a crack at it.

I'm planning to go ahead and kick off elections in the next week or two. I wanted to give the KO a chance to finish and then start the next election cycle. I know we're out of sync with the original end of year timing, but I figure keeping things pretty much annual is best at this point.

Bravo!
Congratulations for the tournament.
BBH, MJS and Mahlemiut, excellent job.
Good choice of games ... Track & Field in the semifinals ...
Congratulations to colman paolo, has been very strong in the knockout phase.
Congratulations also to my friend and RAX, and Goldtimes, sorry, I'm not a great player, but I play tetris enough. You've been a great rival.

It was a shame that good players have dropped for lack of time or unexpected crosses.
In especila Essekappa and RedStar, for me, the tournament favorites.
Greetings to all!

Well done, I enjoyed this KO, well organized i.m.h.o. (good occasion to learn somethin' more), got a better-than-fourth place in at least a game, saw three players of my country in the top 4 at the end...
See you next time, which I suppose it's at the MARP elections. Of course, I'll give a look when possible to the replays uploaded.

i am very happy to win this tournament
BBH, MJS and Mahlemiut great choiche of games,thanks guys!
thanks to all my rivals in this tournament,you were all great players !
great tournament,great organization!i am very happy to join in mar site!
i think marp has the best players in the world!
RAX,my friend and "creator"(he suggested me to participate in K10)i was lucky in the last round,because you hate tetris!
you're one of the best players i know!
thanks to all the people who believed in me,especially KERNZY and AGODZILLA@AIVA!
arcade rules!forever!

Congratulations for the winner Paolo Colman, Rax, Nii-san and Goldtimes.
Thanks to coordinators BBH, Mahlemiut and MJS for organizing and make possible this exciting tournament.
Marp competitors, see you all in next K11.